Yue took Zi Chen up to uncle Wen's study. Inside Qian was sitting with his father discussing something very seriously even uncle Wen seemed very busy.
Yue did not want to disturb them.
"Why don't we go meet your daddy first,"
"Hmm okay," licking his lollypop Chen nodded. "Dad, why did you give the lotus to uncle P. I thought you liked it,"
"I loved it. That's why I gave it for him. I want to know if it's safe for our family,"
"I don't get it,"
Yue gently caressed his curly, blank hair. "In this world even normal plants and flowers have the potential to hurt you. Not all mutated plants are like willow and peachy. There are poisonous varieties, man eating varieties," he said dramatically.
Zi Chen cutely gasped. "Then the lotus was bad?"
"I don't know. Uncle P can test and let us know if it's a good plant or a bad plant?"
Zi Chen nodded. "Yes we should not have bad plants in our house. Beauty grandma might be in danger if so. I would do my utmost to protect beauty grandma." He said, puffing up his chest.
Yue pinched his cute cheeks. "Spoke like a man,"
They walked over to the second-floor basement where the soldiers all resided Fan's study was here very close to his own room.
Zi Chen bolted down the hallway.
"Careful," he ran after him.
"Daddy," he threw open the door and rushed in.
"Oh looks like my hero is here," Fan happily lifted him up. "Why are you running little man? Look, you made mommy run after you?"
"Mommy? I'm dad, you're dad2." Yue kissed his cheeks.
"Aw, I thought you were the mommy." Fan moved close to his ears. "Because you feed me every day at bed.. Boy I love sucking those nipples. Too bad there is no milk..."
"You ... stop talking nonsense," Yue pinched his waist subtly. His face was hot and he already knew he was blushing like a fucking tomato. He just simply snuggled up to him and hid in the crook on his neck. "How's work?"
"Going smoothly. The new crops have been growing well and I'm sure we can feed these ten thousand people for a few months with it... still we are at the edge....," he whispered softly kissing his head.
Yue glanced up. "I thought the new fertilizer that Prisitsky created worked well.."
"If the crops fail like last time it would be very very stressful."
"It won't. I'm sure of it,"
In fact, Yue was not sure of anything now. So many things have changed and he did not have the added advantage of knowing the future. He did not know what would happen. It was a slightly unsettling feeling. "We will all be okay, right?.."
"Of course, I'm here. What would happen to you guys?" Fan playfully bit Zi Chen's cheeks.
"Ow daddy that hurts," he held his pink cheeks.
"Who asked you to be so cute? You must take after your dad 1 here. You both are so adorable,"
Fan let Zi Chen down to play with the toys in the corner. "Come," he beckoned Yue to the side. "We cleared the cornfields out the walls and.... it was weird... there were no zombies. Even the mole rats had moved away. It's all too weird. Do you remember the zombie tide that came on the second year?"
He gave him a smile and pulled Fan farther away. "You don't mean..."
"I suspect so.. I'm not sure when but it's going to happen. We need to prepare everything. The wall has been built but I'm not sure it can hold off that many."
Yue trembled slightly. He distinctly remembered the zombie tide. It was the worst, there were zombies everywhere. People were running pushing and pulling everyone. It was chaos.
Back then he was in the s city base. It was worse there and the base actually fell. Humans lost many bases to this zombie tide.
Only a few known bases escaped. The G city base was one. Fan was in control at that time.
"How bad was it back then?"
Fan raised his brow.
"I was not here. I was in s city base. I moved after the zombie tide. So how bad was it here?"
"Worse, no food and water. Zombies snuck in and bit a few survivors. They didn't inform us and it spread so rapidly. I fear it could be happening silently in the border near the wall even now."
Yue tightly gripped his arm. "Can we do something.. I mean Qian's screening tests. We can do it again. We can say that we are checking for the mutations and we can check everyone. We can detect it early right?"
Fan sighed. "It's not that simple... people here still don't trust the soldiers. Especially me,"
"Why?! You're doing everything for them!" Yue shouted.
"Dad... what's wrong.." Zi Chen ran to them. "Did dad 2 bully you? Dad 2 you can't bully dad 1. He is my first you should not get jealous.." he said with his little fist on his hips.
Fan smiled widely. "my brave hero is protecting his dad. Oh, how novel," he pulled the kid up.
Zi Chen stiffly looked at him. "don't bully dad, don't fall on dad as well. he's small like me..." he said with a pout.
Fan chuckled out loud. "I can't promise you about the falling part but I can definitely assure you I'm not bullying your dad. Yue?"
Yue stressfully pranced around.
"Yue, I can fall right," he tried to make it playful.
But Yue was deep in panic. He was mumbling something biting his lips.
Fan let Zi Chen down and hugged his lover. "Baby, calm down. I've dealt with it before I can deal with it again,"
Yue shook his head. "The future changed.. What if it changed for the worse.... what if.. What if we lose everything we have built here? Our family, our home... we could lose everything,"
Fan gently patted his back. "We will not lose anything. I promise you that. Now calm down Zi Chen is worried,"
Yue immediately called down. He got down, on his knees, and hugged Zi Chen. "I was only playing with dad. Don't worry,"
"You sad?" he gently touched his face.
"Oh no, I'm very happy. Because my little hero Zi Chen is with me."